


the horizon tries (but it's just not as kind on the eyes)

by renjunethereal



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Aliens, Alternate Universe - College/University, Fluff and Humor, Idiots in Love, Light Angst, M/M, Romance, renjun is pretty, so many idiots, that's it that's the fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-23
Updated: 2020-11-23
Packaged: 2021-03-10 01:46:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,541
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27625600
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/renjunethereal/pseuds/renjunethereal
Summary: Life likes to throw curveballs at Jaemin sometimes, curveballs where Jaemin can’t help but think “wow, I am so fucked.”Like right now, where there is a spaceship in his backyard at two in the morning.
Relationships: Huang Ren Jun/Na Jaemin, Lee Donghyuck | Haechan/Lee Jeno
Comments: 14
Kudos: 184
Collections: '00 FIC FEST ROUND TWO





	the horizon tries (but it's just not as kind on the eyes)

**Author's Note:**

> CW: while none of this makes an actual appearance in the story, please note that of kidnapping, probing, bats, scorpions and flesh eating are mentioned. If any of this makes you uncomfortable, you’re free to click out!

Life likes to throw curveballs at Jaemin sometimes, curveballs where Jaemin can’t help but think “wow, I am so fucked.”

Like that time his theoretical physics professor assigned a huge project worth 20% of his mark a week before it was due. Or that time he missed the last bus because he was napping in the library and had no money to Uber home. Or that time Jaemin came home to Donghyuck pining Jeno against their fridge door while in some drunken starry-eyed staring competition that both of them would say they don’t remember the next day, but Jaemin, well-versed in Donghyuck and Jeno’s sappy pining bullshit, is already anticipating many awkward breakfasts to come.

Or right now, where there is a spaceship in his backyard at two in the morning.

Jaemin’s first thought is, understandably, _oh my god, what the actual fuck_ , but his second thought is that Jeno is going to be _so_ pissed in the morning because said spaceship probably killed off at least half of his plant babies and the smoke emanating off of the thing probably isn’t good for the living ones either. Of course, a pissed Jeno essentially means an emotional and teary Jeno, but it’s not a good Jeno to be around nonetheless.

His third thought might’ve had something to do with the fact that he’s definitely seen a movie that started like this and said movie definitely ended with the main protagonist and all his loved ones getting eaten by aliens, he’s not sure, because before he can finish that thought a person climbs out of the spaceship and Jaemin’s mind goes absolutely blank.

He’s disheveled—probably because he just fell out of the sky—but undeniably pretty, and despite having pink hair, pointed pink ears, unnaturally sparkly pink eyes, and the small but prominent chance that he has a taste for human flesh, he’s also exactly Jaemin’s type. Well. Shit.

With the sudden appearance of Pinky (as Jaemin will now name him with a dreamy sigh), the sight of a clearly extraterrestrial spaceship, and the fact that it’s ass o’clock in the morning, Jaemin does the only logical thing anyone would do in this situation.

He turns around.

“God, I really need a nap,” he mutters sleepily, trudging away.

Someone shouts something at him, presumably Pinky, but Jaemin can’t tell what he’s saying. A hand pulls at his shoulder then, and Jaemin’s forced to turn around—but what he doesn’t expect is to be pulled in by the collar and kissed.

The fact that this is the first kiss he’s had in a while and that his heart is pounding in what Donghyuck would snobbily call an energetic allegro aside, Pinky is a surprisingly aggressive kisser. He slips his tongue in almost right away, and though his lips are soft and delicate—especially compared to Jaemin’s chapped own—Jaemin can’t help but feel like he’s being eaten.

By the time Pinky releases him, Jaemin’s in between a state of shock and just plain awe. He’s panting a bit, and all Jaemin can really say that won’t make him look too stupid is a very profound “what the fuck.”

“I _said,_ wait.” Pinky says, voice annoyed yet undeniably pretty.

Unfortunately for Jaemin, despite having multiple trains of thought running through his mind, some parts terrified and some parts terrified but in a hot way, the only thing that comes out is another wheezing “what the fuck.”

Pinky furrows his eyebrows. “Did the transfer not work? Perhaps I should try again—” he leans in, and Jaemin, seemingly remembering how to move his body, leans back.

“Woah, dude, maybe you should take me to dinner first—” Jaemin starts, before he hears the familiar and horrifying click of the back door opening. Oh no.

“Jaemin?” Jeno calls in his cinnamoroll pajamas, voice heavy and slow. As if to make matters worse, Donghyuck stands half-draped around him, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. “What’re you doing up so la...te.”

Jaemin winces as he watches both Jeno and Donghyuck’s eyes widen. They look at the spaceship. Then at the Pinky. Then at Jaemin. Then at Pinky's hands still on Jaemin’s collar. Then at the distance (or lack thereof) between their mouths. Then back again.

“What the fuck?!” They shout in unison, and Jaemin winces.

Oh, he is _so_ fucked.

. . .

There is an alien in his living room.

Granted, a very pretty alien that is currently fidgeting with the stray threads in the couch cushions in a way that makes Jaemin want to coo but there is _an alien. In his living room._

Wait, no, backtrack, _he made out with said alien not even ten minutes ago_. Jaemin feels the sudden need to lie down for a very, _very_ long time.

He’s not sure what he did to the universe to deserve this. He volunteers at animal shelters. He hands in his assignments on time. Mostly. Sometimes. And sure, maybe he’s stolen a couple pencils off of an unsuspecting freshman or two but it wasn’t intentional! Even if it was, Jaemin’s sure no amount of stolen stationary would lead to deal with a hot alien lifeform crashing into your backyard while on nothing but triple shot espressos and pure willpower.

(There’s probably a joke about angels falling from heaven to be made here, but Jaemin is under too much mental stress to think about it too much.)

Pinky, or ‘Renjun’ as he introduced himself earlier, at the very least looks apologetic about his rather unceremonious appearance.

“I really do apologize,” Renjun says, and Jaemin has to physically tear his eyes away from Renjun’s mouth. _He talks in a pout. What the fuck._ “I was merely passing by Earth when suddenly my engines failed and...it dropped me here.”

“It’s a wonder that you’re even alive,” Jeno comments. “If the impact didn’t kill you the heat would have.”

“Oh, I suppose it was a rough fall, but my skin can usually handle higher temperatures than that.”

“Really, now?” Jeno says, eyes shining.

Jaemin glances at him pointedly. He knows that voice. It’s his ‘fascinated mad scientist’ voice, the one he uses when he’s doing one of his big research projects that take two weeks of madness and three jumbo bags of sour patch kids to finish. Or when he sees a stray cat on the sidewalk.

Donghyuck chooses to butt in, then. “So what are you going to do now that you’re here?”

Renjun pauses. “I’m...I’m not sure. My ship is…”

The four of them look outside to the still smoking and comically large hunk of metal in the backyard (should they do something about that? They should probably do something about that), and look back at each other. “...out of commission. I don’t think I’ll be able to get back home like this.”

“Then just stay with us,” Jeno says, and the three of them look at him with wide eyes. What.

“Really?” Renjun smiles his first real smile and since he got here, and as breathtaking as it is (literally, Jaemin forgot to breathe for a good fifteen seconds) there are way more pressing matters to focus on.

“I’m sure Jaemin could figure something out with your ship, too.” Donghyuck chirps, because he’s a dirty traitor and usually wherever Jeno goes Donghyuck follows.

“He can?” Oh no, now Renjun’s smiling directly at him. Jaemin’s mouth goes a little dry at the sight.

“I can?” He ends up blurting, and cringes at the way his voice cracks. Sure, he’s a year away from getting his masters in aerospace engineering, but nowhere in his curriculum does he learn how to repair a frankly pretty trashed piece of alien technology.

“Renjun,” Jaemin says, putting on his nicest, least crazed smile, “can you give us, like, two minutes to ourselves?”

“Oh! Yes, yes of course.” As soon as those words leave Renjun’s mouth, Jaemin promptly grabs both Jeno and Donghyuck by the shoulder and calmly walks the three of them into the kitchen.

“Are you _crazy?_ ” Jaemin whisper-yells. “He’s an _alien!_ From _outer space!_ ”

“Yeah, who’s currently stranded on an unknown planet with no way to get home,” Jeno adds. “Unless we try and help him out.”

“Jeno—” Jaemin starts.

“You’re smart, you’ll figure it out,” Donghyuck says. Ugh, he hates it when they team up against him. “And he can just take my room! I sleep in Jeno’s bed all the time anyways.”

“You can’t possibly be totally comfortable with an alien living in our house for god knows how long,” Jaemin says.

Donghyuck raises a perfectly tweezed eyebrow. “I don’t know, you seemed pretty ‘comfortable’ with him earlier.”

Jaemin chokes. “That was—”

“Besides, it’s not like we can just let him loose and wander around alone. He’ll be like, kidnapped by the government and probed, or something.” Donghyuck adds.

Jaemin pauses. Shit.

He sighs. “And if I can’t figure it out?”

“Then he’ll just have to stay here.” Jeno says. “He seems nice. It’ll be fine.”

The three of them peek around the corner to see Renjun still on the couch, now inspecting some unknown stain that was hiding on the other side of a couch cushion (Jaemin will have to ask about that later). Renjun catches their gazes, and beams.

Jaemin coughs to hide his wheeze. “Okay, fine. But if he ends up developing a taste for human flesh one of you two will be the first to go.”

Jeno shrugs. “Better me than Donghyuck.”

Donghyuck gasps, delighted. “Aww, Jen, you’d really get eaten for me?”

Jaemin takes a moment to assess his life for a second. He now has the prettiest alien he’s ever seen as a roommate, his other, human roommates are currently staring fondly into each other’s eyes and forgetting that anyone else is in the room, there is still a broken spaceship in his backyard—all at 3 am on a Tuesday.

He really, _really_ needs a nap.

. . .

Having Renjun in the house is a lot more peaceful than Jaemin thought it would be.

It took a minute for Renjun to warm up to them, or rather, life on Earth itself, but once he did he’d become a lot more relaxed. Kind of like the week after you take in a stray cat.

He doesn’t really do much other than watch TV and rifle through their video game collection (right now he’s on Detroit: Become Human), but Jaemin will take that over any of the nightmare scenarios he’s dreamt up where he wakes one morning with his heart in Renjun’s mouth anyday. Besides, it’s not like they can make him do chores when he just discovered a washing machine a week ago.

The spaceship, though definitely dented and scratched to all hell, isn’t as bad as Jaemin thought it was going to be. It’s pretty small, kind of the size of a soccer mom van but with more wiggle room and less pizza-hungry children. Seems that the only real problem is that the engine itself is both disconnected from the rest of the spaceship and in dire need of an oil change. Now, he’s not sure how exactly he’s going to reconnect it or if regular old car oil will work, but that’s a problem for another Jaemin. For now it sits in their garage with all the other junk they’ve collected over the years.

Jaemin learns a few things about Renjun the past few weeks, too.

Like how despite being an actual, literal alien he has a fondness for sci-fi films. He couldn’t make it through one Star Trek movie without cackling about “Earthlings and their wild imaginations”, and then proceeded to watch the entire thing as well as the TV series. And how despite being delicate all over (Jaemin would know from staring at him whenever Renjun’s in the room) he’s surprisingly strong.

“Hm,” Renjun says as he lifts up Donghyuck’s latest Amazon package—a skincare fridge—up with three fingers, “perhaps it’s the difference in gravity.”

Jeno’s in awe, as he is whenever Renjun does something cool and alienesque. Jeno hides it from him but Jaemin knows he keeps an observation notebook dedicated to all things Renjun under his bed, right under his unused polaroid camera. Renjun never really minds it when he gets like this, though, sometimes even playing along with whatever test Jeno wants to run.

Jaemin’s in awe, too, but mostly at how he can’t believe that Renjun could get even more attractive.

“You could probably carry a human adult pretty easily,” Jeno comments. Renjun turns to look at Jaemin, and Jaemin stiffens.

“No.”

Jeno pouts. “It’s for science!”

Jaemin crosses his arms, trying his best not to tremble at the thought of being bridal-carried by a 5’7 pink alien boy.

Unbeknownst to him, said 5’7 pink alien boy is sneaking up behind him and before Jaemin knows it his feet are leaving the ground and he’s forced to hang on to Renjun’s neck for dear life.

“Yes, you’re rather light,” Renjun comments and honest-to-god starts doing squats with Jaemin in his arms, the slightest hint of a smirk on his face. Jaemin doesn’t know whether to crawl into a hole or swoon.

“Ah, I can’t wait to show Donghyuck this,” Jeno chuckles, and Jaemin turns to see the other boy holding up a phone with an obnoxiously amused grin on his face. Oh god, he’s never going to hear the end of this, is he?

Another thing about Renjun is that he’s oddly prideful. Maybe it’s just a cultural difference, but Jaemin can’t think of anybody who’s back is straight 100% of the time, or who makes eye contact with people so intensely, or who portrays their emotions so openly yet never acts on it (well, maybe he can think of a few people for that one).

(But what might be Jaemin’s favourite thing about him—other than his smile and his laugh and his near everything—is the way he blushes.

Jaemin gasped when he first saw it.

He just got back from his afternoon classes, and was about to go take a nap (which to him meant setting a ten minute alarm, laying down with his eyes open, and then getting up around the seven minute mark) when he hears shouting from the living room. Renjun must be playing PUBG again.

Despite looking like he’s one step away from having smoke come out of his ears, all fiery eyes and pursed lips, Renjun has yet to throw a single insult at his teammates. He’s not even using a mic, so he really has free reign here. Jaemin’s never seen someone play video games so calmly before.

“Uh, Renjun?” Jaemin calls tentatively. “How ah, how are you?”

“Fine,” Renjun says, sounding impressively calm for someone with gritted teeth and a look that could kill a man. “Absolutely fine.”

A boom roars from the TV and the telltale words “you are now spectating” flash across the screen. Renjun slowly lays down his controller, deeply inhales, and—

Orange. Renjun’s cheeks, ears, neck, are turning peachy _orange_. On any normal person it would look unflattering but on Renjun it just makes him look insultingly ethereal, like someone went and painted a sunset over his cheeks.

At Jaemin’s gasp, Renjun turns to look at him with wide eyes. “Is something wrong?”

“No,” Jaemin wheezes, “You’re just, your face—”

“Oh!” Renjun claps his hands over his face cutely. “Yes, that happens sometimes. When I feel...emotional. Sorry.”

“Don’t apologize!” Jaemin blurts, because he really shouldn’t. “It’s...it’s...pretty.”

Renjun doesn’t say anything after that, choosing instead to turn back to the TV and start up a new game, but he doesn’t have to with how much his blush darkens.)

Despite living together for a solid month now, they don’t talk about the kiss, which is just fine with Jaemin. Mostly. Sure, some part of him wants Renjun to reject him directly before Jaemin can get too emotionally attached and start, god forbid, _pining_ for him, but another part (the lamer, more cowardly part) is fine with avoiding the emotional confrontation until the end of time. Still Renjun hasn’t made it clear that the kiss meant nothing to him, so Jaemin decides he’s going to do it for him. It’s fine, everything is fine.

. . .

“We should throw him a welcome party,” Donghyuck says one morning as he walks into the garage.

Jaemin stops short from where he’s squinting at a jumble of wires. “And invite who, the US government?”

He doesn’t have to look back to know Donghyuck’s rolling his eyes. “We don’t have to invite anybody. It can just be us, y’know, playing some games, drinking a little booze—”

“—you mean getting wasted because you’re emotionally stressed out and you want an excuse to sit in Jeno’s lap without making it weird,” Jaemin finishes for him. Donghyuck scrunches his nose in distaste.

“Ugh, I hate it when you’re suprisingly perceptive.” Jaemin hums noncommittally. He tries isolating a purple wire from the tangle, and gets zapped. He hisses.

“Come on, it’ll be fun! We can introduce Renjun to the Earthen tradition of drinking games.” Donghyuck singsongs, oblivious to Jaemin’s pain.

Jaemin pauses. “Can he even get drunk?”

“Wouldn’t it be fun to find out?” Donghyuck says, eyes shining mischievously. There’s a few frankly painful seconds of Donghyuck using his puppy dog eyes on him, before Jaemin gives.

He sighs. “Fine, but you’re buying the drinks.”

“Yay!” Donghyuck cheers. He starts running out of the room, probably so he can wake Jeno up from his afternoon nap and somehow make buying booze for a small get together into one of their not-dates, but before he leaves he shouts a confident “you won’t regret this!”

“I better not!” Jaemin shouts back.

. . .

Jaemin regrets this.

Granted, nothing has really happened yet and they’re just sitting in a circle on the living room floor with their respective beer cans in the middle, but Jaemin can already feel that he’s going to regret something about tonight. Maybe it’s because everyone’s already kind of tipsy.

(Prior to them making a community circle, Donghyuck decided that Renjun should try out the beer first, which ended up turning into the three of them downing a few beer cans while Renjun occasionally licks at the rim of his like a displeased kitten.)

Donghyuck likes to pretend to be a lightweight so Jaemin’s not surprised to find him already in Jeno’s lap. Jeno (an actual lightweight) doesn’t seem to mind it too much though, if his arms around Donghyuck’s waist and his chin perched on the boy’s shoulder is any tell.

“The game’s simple,” Donghyuck starts, “one person will ask someone ‘truth or dare’. If they pick truth, they’ll have to answer a question. If they pick dare, they’ll have to do something. If they refuse to do either of those things, they gotta chug.”

Renjun scrunches his nose up when Donghyuck gestures to the beer, and Jaemin tries very hard not to coo. He’s probably not going to be doing a lot of drinking tonight, which just means Jaemin has all the more opportunity to embarrass himself more and for Renjun to remember it in vivid detail.

“I’ll go first!” Jeno chirps, hand raised and words slightly slurred. Drunk Jeno could mean one of two things: either he’ll get overly emotional (like that time he demanded he tuck Jaemin into bed at 8pm and actually cried because Jaemin had the audacity to decline) or excited and giggly. Looks like tonight’s going to be the latter.

“Jaeminnie, truth or dare?” Jaemin thinks this over for a second.

“Let’s go with dare.” Jeno smiles, and as innocent as it normally looks Jaemin doesn’t miss the mischievous twinkle in his eye.

“I dare you to kiss Renjun.”

It’s as if a bucket of ice water was poured down Jaemin’s back. Jaemin looks at Jeno in a way that he hopes conveys ‘why do you hate me’, and sneaks the smallest glance at Renjun’s direction. Renjun’s looking back at him, face pretty but neutral. And god if that doesn’t sting just the tiniest bit.

Jaemin doesn’t look at Renjun as he chugs down a beer can, letting the cold liquid run down his throat to hopefully quell his embarrassed flush. Maybe he can blame it on the alcohol.

He finishes with a satisfied sigh. “My turn.”

It gets a little tamer after that. Jaemin dares Donghyuck to give him his wallet until his next turn (“Aha! So you _did_ steal my Chatime stamp card!”), Donghyuck dares Jeno to change his shirt in front of him to the sleeveless shirt he wore when he worked as a lifeguard last summer (and seems way too excited when Jeno does it) and Jeno dares Renjun to give him a kiss on the cheek, to which Renjun obliges without much of a fuss. Jaemin’s not fuming. He’s not (Donghyuck on the other hand, definitely is).

There were some cop-outs too, including Renjun innocently asking “what do you think about Jeno?” to Donghyuck and the man in question downing a beer barely after the words left Renjun’s mouth. Eventually after a couple rounds it was Jaemin’s turn again. Except this time, he’s utterly, sufficiently drunk.

“Renjunnie,” Jaemin slurs, “truth or dare?”

Renjun hums in thought. “Truth.”

Now, if Jaemin was sober, he would think this through a little more, ask himself if this is going to make things awkward between them. But alas, he is not.

“Why did you kiss me that day?”

Jaemin’s not sure what he expects. Blushing, maybe a little embarrassment. What he doesn’t expect is Renjun furrowing his eyebrows in confusion.

“You mean when I kissed you on the mouth?” Jaemin blinks.

“Uh, yeah?” Where else has he kissed him?

Donghyuck abandons his seat on Jeno’s lap for a second to whisper something into Renjun’s ear, and Renjun goes “oh? Oh!” and starts giggling, which isn’t really making Jaemin feel much better about the whole uncertainty-about-what-Renjun-thinks-of-him-and-what-he-thinks-of-Renjun thing.

“I’m sorry, it’s just,” Renjun stifles a wheeze, “I didn’t realize you humans were so...demure.”

Jaemin must look really pitiful (is he pouting? He’s probably pouting. Drunk Jaemin does that a lot), because eventually Renjun calms down and starts explaining himself. “On my planet we are able to speak and understand other languages through a form of mouth-to-mouth transfer. It’s performed a lot by diplomats and royalty so it isn’t really considered a display of affection.”

Oh. Well. Now Jaemin just feels extra stupid. Relieved, but stupid.

“What _is_ considered a display of affection?” Jaemin asks before he can help it.

Renjun blushes a soft peach, as if the mere thought of it embarasses him. _Now look who’s demure_ Jaemin wants to say, but doesn’t.

“A kiss...over the eyelids.” Renjun says softly. “My people believe that you are the most vulnerable when your eyes are closed, thus giving someone permission to touch you in such a place is...special.”

“Has anyone ever done that to you?” Jaemin asks. Jaemin has, once, when he was younger and dumber and more naive, but from the looks of it Renjun probably wouldn’t treat it as lightly.

“I—”

Donghyuck claps his hands together, snapping Jaemin back to reality. “Okay! Renjun, it’s your turn.”

Oh. Right. Truth or dare.

“...Jaemin, truth or dare?” Renjun asks.

“Truth,” Jaemin says without missing a beat.

“Oh, um,” Renjun scrambles, “w-what is your favourite colour?”

 _Oh no. He’s cute_. Jeno and Donghyuck can’t hold in their snorts (they even laugh in unison, ugh) but Renjun shushes them, cheeks slightly peachy.

Jaemin thinks this over for a moment, and lets out a breath of a laugh. Well, it’s not a lie.

“Pink.”

Renjun nearly looks like a tangerine from how much he’s blushing, and Jaemin has a hard time containing his grin.

“Oh. Nice.” Renjun says in a very small, hilariously monotone voice, and Jaemin can’t help it when he tosses Renjun a flirty smile. Jaemin can see Donghyuck fake gagging in the corner of his eye, but he doesn’t care.

His phone vibrates then.

_Idiot #1: ur so gross whenm u flirt_

_Idiot #1: justr get on wit it n ask hinm out_

Jaemin scoffs.

_You: oh yeah? nmaybe when u ask ou jeno first_

_Idiot #1: u know wha, I fucvking will!!!!!_

“Jeno!” Donghyuck shouts suddenly.

Jeno jumps a little, jostling Donghyuck in his lap, but looks up at him with a bright, sunny smile, the one that gets him free drinks at bars and into the hearts of upperclassmen, old ladies, and Donghyucks alike. “Yeah?”

“I have something to tell you!” Donghyuck shouts, because Donghyuck somehow gets even louder when he’s drunk.

“I have something to tell you too!” Jeno shouts back, because he is nothing if not an enabler.

“Oh—what, wait—then you go first!”

Jeno easily manhandles Donghyuck into facing him, stares up at him with an inexplicable gleam in his eyes as he says: “Did you know that there are bats that eat scorpions? They’re called pallid bats, and they’re one of the only bat species that are immune to venom! They’re even known to eat the most venomous scorpion species in North America—the Arizona bark scorpions, who’s sting can kill humans! Isn’t that cool?!”

Jeno rambles on for a good thirty seconds about the behavioural patterns of pallid bats and their hunting style (apparently they actually hunt on the ground as opposed to in the air), and by the time he’s done, Donghyuck’s looking at him with eyes so soft and fond Jaemin could gag just looking at him.

“So cool, Jen,” Donghyuck sighs dreamily. Jeno nods vigorously in agreement.

“So what did you want to tell me?” Jeno asks.

“Huh? Oh, right!” Donghyuck seems to snap out of whatever jeno-induced haze he was in, his shoulders hunching, adam’s apple bobbing as he swallows.

“Would you like to…” Donghyuck starts, and Jaemin is on the edge of his seat from where he’s unabashedly eavesdropping on them (it’s fine, they never notice anyone else is in the room when they get like this anyways).

“...take notes for me for next Thursday’s morning class? I can’t make it, I, uh, have to babysit my niece.” Donghyuck finishes, and Jaemin almost audibly groans. So close.

“Oh,” Jeno says. “Yeah, sure! Don’t worry about it. That’s what best friends are for, right?”

“Yeah!” Donghyuck says over-enthusiastically. God, this is painful to watch. “Right!”

_You: ooohhh, what a fumble_

_Idiot #1: shurt up im workingh on it_

Jaemin feels someone’s eyes on him, and looks up from his phone to see Renjun staring at him with those big, sparkly eyes. Jaemin, (gay, drunk) smiles another dreamy smile his way, and Renjun looks away with a huff.

 _Yeah_ , Jaemin thinks. _We both are._

. . .

“I want to go out.” Renjun announces one day.

The morning after was rough, to say the least. While Renjun sat eating his cereal (guess they’ll never know if Renjun can get drunk, seeing as he drank about as much as a baby bird), everyone else trudged into the living room with headaches and present but fading nausea, groaning at the morning sun.

“I’m never drinking again,” Donghyuck moans into a kitchen island. Jeno nods slowly in agreement, eyes refusing to open for more than half of a second.

“Liar,” Renjun says without missing a beat, taking a lengthy sip of strawberry milk (Jaemin hates the taste but Renjun likes the taste so he keeps ending up buying them).

“Yeah. Kinda want to drink again tonight.” Donghyuck says, before hissing as Jaemin smacks his arm. “Kidding! Kidding.”

Eventually Jaemin has to kick Dumb and Dumber out for their morning classes, and then it’s just him and Renjun. Which is fine. Just fine. Not like Jaemin is still trying to work out his maybe-probably-definitely-there feelings about him and last night just made it worse, not at all.

Luckily for him, Jaemin’s already mastered the art of ignoring people who are otherwise right in front of you, having a lot of practice from when someone he doesn’t know nor like tries to talk to him and when Donghyuck and Jeno get into one of their “moods”. He thinks he’s doing a pretty good job of it, pretending to work on his assignments by aimlessly switching between their rubric tabs, until Renjun drops that bomb on him and he looks up on pure impulse and _well, shit_. No going back now.

The “absolutely not” is on the tip of Jaemin’s tongue until he sees the excited, yet determined gleam in Renjun’s eye (making his eyes somehow look even _more_ sparkly) and it keels over and dies. Jaemin’s one fluttering of the eyelashes away from following suit.

“I read online that humans schedule recreational outings with partners often to promote social interaction and personal amusement. I want to try this. It sounds...fun.”

It clicks. “A date...you want to go on a date.”

Renjun beams. “Yes. A date.”

Now, there are a lot of things that could go wrong if Jaemin says yes. They could go out, and someone could see a boy with pink eyes, hair and a tendency to look like a sunset when he blushes and call the government, and Renjun could get kidnapped and probed. Or one of those weird people that collect animals could kidnap Renjun and probe him. Or Jaemin could throw himself into danger in order to allow Renjun to escape and _he_ will get kidnapped and probed. Either way, the day ending in someone getting kidnapped and probed seems like a very real and plausible scenario.

What could go right if Jaemin says yes? Well, he gets to spend a whole day with Renjun, just the two of them. He can take Renjun anywhere he wants and impress him with his impeccable taste in date spots and general flirty bravado. Renjun has a very high chance of smiling at one point during the day.

Jaemin sighs. “We can leave after lunch, but you’ll need a disguise.”

. . .

Trying to make someone as...noticeable (read: absolutely gorgeous) as Renjun is harder than Jaemin thought. Eventually after the fifth ugly outfit Renjun manages to look good in Jaemin switches gears and ends up trying just to cover up as much of Renjun as possible, which means dressing him up in one his Adidas tracksuits, a pair of sunglasses he borrowed from Donghyuck that one time they went to Hawaii on a class trip he never gave back, and a beanie.

With this, he looks every bit like one of the hungover college students Jaemin would see in one of his lectures, except...

Jaemin can’t help it. He snorts.

“What’s so funny?” Renjun huffs, hands on his hips, lips just on the verge of a pout.

“You look like an egg,” Jaemin murmurs into his hand, trying and failing to muffle his giggles. Renjun’s definitely pouting now, and Jaemin almost feels bad for laughing. Almost.

“Fuck you,” Renjun fires back. Maybe Jaemin would take him seriously if he didn’t look like...well, an egg, albeit a very cute one.

“You’ve been spending too much time with Donghyuck,” Jaemin scolds instead.

“Or too much time with you,” Renjun chirps.

Well, he’s not wrong. Still, Jaemin huffs playfully, “then maybe you should go on a date with Jeno instead. He’s usually a lot more PG.”

Renjun blinks. “Why would I do that? I want to go with you.”

Oh. _Oh._

God, the date hasn’t even started yet and Jaemin already feels like he’s suffering from heart palpitations.

“You’re honest at the weirdest of times,” Jaemin mutters under his breath, ducking his head down and hoping Renjun doesn’t catch his blush.

“Pardon?”

“Nothing, nothing, let’s get going.”

. . .

Jaemin has to be smart about this. Where could he take Renjun somewhere that is cost-effective, impressive, and perfectly encapsulates modern Earthen and American culture?

“Welcome to Baskin Robbins!” An employee shouts from his place behind the counter.

Okay, in Jaemin’s defence, they’re not _only_ going to Baskin Robbins, as sweet as cheap ice cream is (pun intended). This Baskin Robbins just happens to be right next to the boardwalk that Renjun has already spent a good amount of time aweing over.

(“Look Jaemin! A seagull!” Renjun says in awe.

In hindsight, having Renjun wear all black and a beanie in June probably doesn’t look as inconspicuous as Jaemin thought it would, but it’s California—people have seen weirder things.

Besides, Renjun somehow manages to look even cuter like this with only his excited grin visible as he bounces from place to place, taking in every sight there is to see. He can’t see his eyes like this, but Jaemin bets Renjun has that fascinated little gleam in his eye that makes him weak in the knees.

“What’s this contraption?” Renjun asks. Jaemin smiles fondly.

“That’s a vending machine, Renjun.”

“How magnificent.”)

“‘Sup, Yangyang.” Jaemin greets. He and Yangyang go way back. In freshman year they were paired up along with two other students that were about as helpful as two sacks of potatoes, so they ended up bonding over some combination of hatred, mental breakdowns and an unhealthy amount of Red Bull.

“What’ll it be today?” Yangyang asks.

Jaemin mulls it over for a bit. “Vanilla.”

“Boo, you’re no fun.” Yangyang scrunches his nose in distaste. Jaemin sticks his tongue out at him.

His eyes flick over to Renjun and raises an eyebrow. “And for your...friend?”

Renjun doesn’t give him a direct answer, and Jaemin doesn’t need to see his eyes to know that he’s currently scanning over the menu board like he’s about to do a competition level calculus problem.

“This is Renjun,” Jaemin says. “He’s uh...Donghyuck’s...cousin...from out of town. Yeah. Donghyuck’s cousin from out of town. He’s staying with us for a few weeks.”

Yangyang’s eyebrow is still raised, this time paired with narrowed eyes. Jaemin throws him his most convincing smile.

Now Renjun kind of looks like he got caught in a trance, possibly by the bewitching swirls of Wild n’ Reckless Sherbet, and Jaemin decides he should probably try to get them moving before Yangyang can get too suspicious.

“Pick one you like,” he whispers in his ear, feeling oddly delighted when Renjun jumps in surprise.

“Uh, um,” Renjun says intelligently, before raising his arm to point “that one!”

Yangyang tips his head up to look at the board, and then shrugs. “One rainbow sherbet it is.”

“So,” Yangyang says as he starts preparing their orders (free of charge, because Yangyang’s cool like that), “where’re you from, Renjun?”

Renjun tosses Jaemin a panicked look, Jaemin makes a few wild gestures, and Renjun turns back to Yangyang with a nervous smile. “I’m from...uh...Canada?”

(“Canada, really?” Jaemin would say later.

“I don’t know, I panicked!”)

Yangyang makes an understanding sound, and Jaemin almost audibly sighs in relief. “Makes sense. You look Canadian.”

“Thank you!” Renjun says enthusiastically. Yangyang laughs it off, thank god, but Jaemin can tell they’re on thin fucking ice. They need to get out of here.

“One vanilla and one rainbow sherbet.” Yangyang announces in what Jaemin likes to call his customer service voice (“it makes you sound like you take an Advil with cream soda every morning.” “That’s because I do”), handing them each of their respective cones. While Jaemin’s is just plain white, Renjun’s has pink and orange swirls on it, and Jaemin can’t help but smirk.

“It looks just like you.” Renjun huffs in offense, lips curving into a pout.

“Shut up.”

It happens in slow motion. Renjun lifts up his beanie a little bit to scratch at his ear absentmindedly, and Yangyang gets an eyeful of just how pink and pointy and not-human it is. Oh no.

“What the fu—”

“Haha okay it was good seeing you dude bye bye now!” Jaemin rambles nervously, practically dragging poor Renjun out the door as he hangs onto his ice cream for dear life.

. . .

“That was close,” Jaemin sighs.

Renjun doesn’t answer, choosing instead to take a _huge_ bite out of his ice cream before Jaemin can stop him.

“Agh, ish so cold!” Renjun cries, and Jaemin’s about to comfort and coo at him like Renjun’s a little baby bird (which he might as well be) when he makes a pleased sound.

“You like it?” Jaemin asks, and smiles when Renjun nods.

After narrowingly escaping Yangyang and the clutches of Baskin Robbins Jaemin figured it would be best to just relax and talk a walk along the shore line, sand in his shoes be damned. Of course there’s still the looming problem of Yangyang possibly spilling the pink and orange beans about Renjun to the world(he always did have a big mouth) but that’s a problem for another Jaemin.

“I’ve never had anything like this back home.” Renjun says wistfully.

“What’s it like there?” Jaemin asks before he can stop himself. At Renjun’s inquisitive look Jaemin scrambles, “I just mean, uh, you never really talk about where you’re from all that much.”

Jaemin kicks himself. _Yeah, maybe there’s a reason for that, you asshat_.

Renjun doesn’t seem to immediately bristle and run away from him like an aggravated cat, though, so that’s a good sign at least.

“That’s true,” Renjun says. “I have been quite lax in sharing things about my home world. Apologies, I was too caught up in the...flashiness...of Earth to really think about it.”

“Y-you don’t have to share anything if you’re not comfortable, I’m just annoying—”

“No, no, I want to share.” Renjun cuts off. Jaemin ignores the brief zing of delight that goes through him. “It’s not fair if I get to see all sides of you when you don’t even know the name of my planet.”

“Let’s start there, then.” Jaemin pauses to catch the drippy edges of his ice cream cone from falling any further with his tongue. He can feel Renjun staring at him, but doesn’t dare look up. “What’s your planet called?”

“I don’t think you could say it even if you wanted to,” Renjun says. “It is called—”

Ooh. Yeah. Jaemin’s not going to even attempt that. “What’s it like there?”

Renjun seems to mull it over for a bit. “It is...very warm, all the time, though we rarely have cold treats like these,” he pauses to take a tiny lick of his ice cream cone, and Jaemin almost coos. He’s learning! “We have oceans and beaches, just like you humans—or rather, one ocean. I live on the farthest right side, where the capital is.”

Renjun’s sunglasses tip down his nose, eyes misty eyed and wistful. “On special days the citizens will celebrate on the beach right before the suns go down. There would be laughter, and dancing, and singing, and it would be the most magical time, though I could never participate, of course, being stuck in a castle and all—”

Renjun gasps, and clasps a hand over his mouth, but it’s too late. Jaemin heard that loud and clear.

There’s heavy silence between them. Gears click into place. A lightbulb goes off. Jaemin’s eyes widen.

“You’re a prince.” It’s not a question.

Renjun smiles solemnly, his hand dropping limply to his side. “Something like that.”

Jaemin’s not sure how to respond, absolutely floored. “Um, is this the part where I get down on my knees and beg for your forgiveness for disrespecting you, O’ Royal Highness?” He says jokingly.

Renjun cringes. “Please do not. I think I have had enough of that for a lifetime.”

Jaemin nods, and drops it immediately, though his eyes fall to the horizon over the ocean. “Hey, well, think of it this way—”

Jaemin gently turns Renjun towards the setting sun. “Now you get to watch the sunset right here, on the beach. We only have one sun, so it’s probably not the same, but—”

“—no, it’s beautiful.” Renjun says, voice just above a whisper, watching the edges of the clouds turn pink as the sun bathes the ocean in warmth.

The two watch the sunset in tranquil silence—or rather, Renjun watches the sunset and Jaemin flicks his eyes to him every two seconds—before Renjun turns to him, pink eyes dipped in amber.

“Thank you for today, Jaemin,” He says. Jaemin takes in a deep, shaky breath.

_This is it. Say it. Say it, you coward._

“You’re welcome,” Jaemin says instead, though it’s worth it for the way Renjun beams.

. . .

“Renjun! Renjun!” Jaemin shouts as he practically skips his way towards the kitchen. Renjun stops sipping what must be his third strawberry milk of the day.

“What is it?” He asks, though there’s a smile on his face.

“I have something really cool to show you,” Jaemin says.

Since that day (which Jaemin has dubbed the Baskin Robbins incident, title pending), Renjun has seemed to open up more. Jaemin keeps mum about Renjun’s whole royalty status thing per his request, but other than that Renjun’s become a lot more comfortable talking about his home planet. Jeno, especially, has taken a liking to any stories Renjun has about the wildlife that are apparently rampant and free roaming.

(“I guess the most accurate English translation would be...tiny...puff...ball?” Renjun tries. “They are about the size of my hand, with one big eye and soft fur. They only live in the farthest side of the forests, so we do not see them often.”

“They must be popular pets.” Donghyuck chirps.

Renjun shakes his head. “Oh no, they are very bad pets. In history we have tried to tame them, but they love the taste of our flesh too much. Despite being small, they have to eat a lot. If you’re not careful it could swallow you whole. It’s very troublesome.”

Jeno gasps in delight. “Cool!”)

“Where are we going?” Renjun asks, but Jaemin keeps mum. “Are you going to lock me outside again?”

“Hey! That was unintentional,” Jaemin says, offended. “You were so small I didn’t notice you were still out there.”

Renjun humphs. “Now it better be something really good, or else.” He never says what he’ll do, but Jaemin’s seen his PUBG kill count enough times to know he doesn’t want to find out.

“It is, it is,” Jaemin says, steering Renjun through the garage door.

“Ta-da!” Jaemin says, taking his hands away. “I finally fixed your ship!”

At first it seemed like a chore, trying to prepare this large hunk of metal when he still had other probably more important school assignments to do, but he’s gotta admit he’s grown somewhat attached to the thing. It was definitely a good pet project to relieve some stress, either academic or Renjun-related.

“Oh. That’s...great.” Renjun says. He doesn’t seem quite as thrilled about it as Jaemin is.

“Isn’t it?” Jaemin says before he can help himself. “Now you can finally go home!”

There’s a very brief, heartstopping second where Renjun’s face just drops, but it’s quickly replaced with a delighted smile, not quite reaching his eyes.

“Yeah. So great.” He says.

. . .

“Hey, Renjun—”

“I’ll be in my room,” Renjun says, not even sparing a glance at Jaemin as he passes him.

This has been happening for a few days now. Jaemin will walk into a room, sometimes not even looking for Renjun specifically, and Renjun will exit that room in thirty seconds or less. It’s as impressive as it is upsetting.

He’s considered talking to Jeno and Donghyuck about it, but figured that this really wasn’t their fight to get into (is that what this is now? A fight?). They already look uncomfortable enough whenever they’re unfortunate enough to witness Jaemin get punched in the heart over and over again as Renjun leaves the room colder and empty without his presence.

Jaemin has a lot he wants to say to him. “I’m sorry”, “how can I make it up to you?”, “please don’t hate me”, but Renjun won’t even give him the time of day.

That is until Renjun suddenly corners him against a wall one day, and Jaemin thinks this is it, finally—

“I’m leaving in a week.” Renjun says, staring into Jaemin’s chest.

Wait, what?

“Wait, what?” Jaemin says.

“Jeno and Donghyuck already know, don’t worry. I wanted to give them a little more time to digest it all,” Renjun continues, and promptly starts walking towards the bathroom. Jaemin is hot on his heels, eyes wide in confusion.

“But why?” Jaemin asks. _Why do you want to leave me?_

“Thanks for everything, Jaemin,” Renjun says. “Especially for fixing my ship.”

Jaemin opens his mouth to speak, but is met with a door slamming in his face.

. . .

Jaemin can’t take this anymore.

It’s evolved to a point where the two wouldn’t even look at each other anymore, Renjun too prideful and Jaemin too cowardly. The most interaction Jaemin would get is those few seconds where they’re in the same room, or when Renjun comes by while Jaemin’s doing the laundry to put his borrowed clothes into the hamper. It’s stifling.

Today is his last chance. Renjun is leaving today.

It’s surreal, seeing the backpack full of what meager supplies Renjun wanted to bring with him rest next to the door, seeing pieces of Renjun slowly disappear around the house. Jaemin nearly cried in aisle seven at Walmart when he realized that he didn’t need to keep buying strawberry milk anymore.

So that’s why Jaemin is currently here, missing his morning classes as he stands outside Renjun’s room at nine in the morning, arms crossed and chest puffed up in faux courage.

Renjun opens the door with an unfairly cute yawn, but once he sees Jaemin he stops short.

“Can I help you?” He looks down at the floor, and Jaemin hates that, hates that even now Renjun refuses to look him in the eye.

“We need to talk.” Jaemin says.

“...I need to finish packing,” Renjun says. A feeble excuse, even for him. He tries walking past, but Jaemin blocks him.

“I’m not leaving this spot until you have a conversation with me.” Jaemin huffs, firm. Renjun gives him an unimpressed look before grasping Jaemin’s shoulders and lifting him up and out of the way like a bag of rice.

“Wha—hey!” Jaemin protests, speed walking to catch up with Renjun. He pointedly ignores the embarrassed flush creeping up his neck. Renjun’s pursing his lips in an attempt to hold back a laugh, so that’s...something. Jaemin will take it.

“Renjun, I’m serious,” Jaemin says. No answer. He pauses.

“Please. Just talk to me.”

There’s a brief silence where all Jaemin hears is his heart pounding out of his chest, before Renjun turns around, eyes practically burning holes into Jaemin’s. “There’s nothing to talk about.”

“There is a lot to talk about,” Jaemin protests. “Why are you avoiding me?”

“You avoided me first!”

“Because you kept treating me like I don’t exist!” Jaemin fires back. He takes a deep breath, tries to calm himself down. Then, quieter: “Just...why do you want to leave? I thought...I thought you liked it here.” _With me_. _I thought you liked being with me_.

And then Renjun does something Jaemin has never seen him do before. He cries.

Jaemin’s bridging the distance between them before he can help it, holding Renjun close to his chest. “Shhh, shhh, it’s okay.”

Renjun is not a pretty crier, all snot and deep hiccuped breaths and fat tears that soak into the fabric of Jaemin’s t-shirt, but Jaemin doesn’t care. He keeps silent until Renjun is ready to speak.

“I do-don’t w-want to go,” Renjun sniffs. “I never w-wanted to...go. I thought—I thought you wanted me to l-leave.”

“What?” Jaemin says. And then it clicks. Oh. _Oh._ That day at the garage. “No, no, I never wanted you to leave. I’m sorry—I must have made things hard for you, huh?”

Renjun shakes his head into Jaemin’s shoulder. “Wh-why are you apologizing? I wa...was the one being d-dumb.”

“We were both being dumb,” Jaemin says. Jaemin doesn’t talk much after that, instead patting at Renjun’s back soothingly and letting him cry into his shoulder.

“Hey, Renjun?” Jaemin says after a while. Renjun looks up at him, nose still runny and eyes still shiny with tears yet so, so beautiful.

“Yeah?”

Jaemin takes a deep breath, “I think I like you.”

Renjun quirks the corner of his mouth up. “I like you too.”

“No, no—” Jaemin swallows. No backing out now. “As in I want to like...take you out on dates, and hold you when you’re sad, just like this, and, and...kiss your eyelids.”

“Oh,” Renjun says, and Jaemin’s thinking _this is it, this is when I get rejected_. “...yeah, I’d like that.”

“Cool.” Jaemin says lamely. Cool. Cool cool cool cool. Jaemin keeps silent in favour of giving himself time to calm his beating heart.

“...you can, you know,” Renjun mumbles, barely intelligible. “Do...that thing, I mean.”

Oh. _Oh. So much for calming down._

“How demure,” Jaemin drawls, and chokes when Renjun jabs at his stomach. Jaemin pulls away, then, in lieu of holding Renjun’s face in his hands, brushing away any stray tears that fall past his cheekbones.

“May I?” He asks, just in case. Renjun nods, and closes his eyes.

Jaemin inhales shakily, his lips suddenly feeling chapped. He makes sure to be gentle as he places a kiss over each of Renjun’s cheekbones, the very tip of his nose, and finally—a barely there kiss on each of his eyelids. It’s such a simple action, but it makes Jaemin feel good. Complete.

Once he pulls away, Jaemin opens his mouth to say something, though he’s not really sure what, when he hears the telltale click of the door unlocking.

The front door opens to reveal Jeno and Donghyuck standing in the doorway, who stop short. They look at Jaemin, then Renjun. Then Renjun’s bag that lays limp against the wall. Then back at them. Then at the distance (or lack thereof) between them.

“This feels like deja vu,” Jeno says, brows furrowed. “Are we interrupting something?”

Jaemin thinks about this for a moment, before pulling Renjun closer to his chest. “Yes. Go have your own lovey dovey moment, we’re busy here.”

“Jaemin!” Renjun hisses, though his blush says it all.

Jeno and Donghyuck turn twin shades of red, suddenly refusing to look at each other. Jaemin manages to feel both empathetic and extremely unimpressed at the same time.

“Actually, Donghyuck,” Jeno starts, staring at his shoes.“I, um, wanted to talk to you about something. Can we go to my room?”

Donghyuck sputters. “Uh, um, yeah, yeah sure. Absolutely.”

Jeno is already heading up, Donghyuck hot on his heels, though the latter turns back towards Renjun and Jaemin, two fingers pointing at his eyes before pointing at them. ‘This conversation isn’t over,’ he mouths, before running up the stairs.

“Seems like everything is going to work out just fine.” Renjun beams, eyes sparkling with mirth. His cheeks are still a little peachy, blending into where the pink starts around his ears, making him look like the very tail end of a sunrise.

 _Wow._ Jaemin thinks, a fond smile on his face. _I’m so fucked._


End file.
